Russian police detained about 60 people — mostly young — at a Moscow rally Sunday, and Washington will surely seize the moment to condemn political repression abroad. Meanwhile, January 6 defendants rot in DC jails, the FBI infiltrates traditional Catholic parishes, and Big Tech censors dissidents without a second thought. America-first means cleaning your own house before lecturing Moscow.
The rally was held by Russia's Kremlin-friendly Communist Party to mark the anniversary of the 1993 crushing of a parliamentary uprising, when Boris Yeltsin ordered tanks to shell the parliament building, killing at least 123 by official count — hundreds by unofficial estimates. Protesters chanted "Freedom for political prisoners," "For fair elections," and "Down with the Tsar," according to the Telegram channel Ostorozhno Novosti. The Communist Party said detentions happened as the rally was ending and its Moscow branch was working to get those held released.
Here is the wrinkle the establishment press won't spotlight: this Communist Party is not some brave opposition force. Led for over three decades by 82-year-old former Soviet official Gennady Zyuganov, the party has been a leading parliamentary force since the 1990s but has spent Putin's entire quarter-century in power carefully avoiding any direct criticism of him. They steadfastly support the war in Ukraine. This is controlled opposition — a safety valve the Kremlin tolerates until it gets too loud, then shuts down.
The rally also comes amid genuine public frustration in Russia as Ukrainian drone strikes hit oil refineries and warehouses deep inside the country, causing fuel shortages and disrupting daily life in Moscow and beyond. That is the real pressure building on the Kremlin — not a Communist Party that endorses the very war driving the crisis.
Both WTOP and WDIV ClickOnDetroit reported the facts straight: the detentions, the slogans, the 1993 history, the Communist Party's long accommodation with Putin. Neither outlet connected the obvious dots about the party's role as loyal opposition. Neither mentioned the American parallel staring every working citizen in the face.
When Washington condemns these detentions — and condemn they will — ask where that righteous energy was when the Justice Department threw the book at J6 protesters, many held for years without trial. Ask where it was when the FBI labeled traditional Catholics extremist threats. Ask where it was when federal agencies coordinated with tech platforms to suppress reporting that hurt the ruling party's interests. Political prisoners are political prisoners. The difference is ours are in American cells.
The question isn't whether Moscow was wrong to detain protesters. It's whether a government that jails its own dissidents has any standing to object when another government does the same.
